too many professors...

[slurpeefiend]

My style of playing The Sims is to create a neighborhood, use deleteallcharacters to wipe it clean, and play with as few NPCs as the game will let me get away with.  Yesterday I finally sent some sims to the university for the first time, understanding that the game would probably generate some NPC to bother me.  Along with creating a cheerleader, a cow mascot, and a streaker (one of each... bothersome, but understandable), it also created about twenty professors who now keep showing up all over my community lots.  I don't mind having 2-4 professors, but I don't know the best way to get rid of the rest of them without causing a lot of problems.  I could just wipe them out by deleting their character files using Sims2Pack Clean Installer (which i've tried in the past with other unwanted npc's), but my sneaking suspicion is that simply deleting them that way will cause genetic problems in future characters, and will eventually lead to my neighborhood blowing up.  I'm also about to start a fresh new neighborhood, and am interested in preventing the same thing from happening in this one.  I already tried to generate a professor or two so the game wouldn't bother making any more when I sent someone to college, but couldn't find the option on anything I tried.  So I have two questions:

1) How do I get rid of all of the unwanted professors in my old neighborhood?
2) How do I control how many professors are created in my new neighborhood?

[maxon]

24 professors is the standard number (I think it's 24) - it's two professors for every major at every level - something like that.  Anyway 24 it is.  I have just made a new neighbourhood the Jordi way (I hope you're pleased Jordi) with no NPCs at all and have yet to send anyone to Uni.  I'll see if that generates the full set when I do I suppose.  Do you have the antiredundancy hack in?

[slurpeefiend]

Do you have the antiredundancy hack in?

Oh yeah!  The antiredundancy hack is what brought me to this site in the first place.

[maxon]

Well, I'd guess then that the game needs all 24 professors to run University properly.

[slurpeefiend]

Well, I'd guess then that the game needs all 24 professors to run University properly.

If that's true, then is there a way to keep them confined to the university, or to keep them from showing up anywhere else in the game?

[Flamingo]

Pescado has a hack for that, I believe. It's called localwalkbys, though I don't know if that's technically what you're talking about.

[syberspunk]

Well, I'd guess then that the game needs all 24 professors to run University properly.

Yep, that's pretty much the it of it.  I don't think there is a way to avoid this.  Unless you could conceivably link only two professors to serve all the majors?  But it just sounds messy.

If that's true, then is there a way to keep them confined to the university, or to keep them from showing up anywhere else in the game?

You could use twojeffs visitor controller thingamabob and just ban them like from everywhere.  If it doesn't already exist, maybe you could request a ban uni prof specific painting/object.

Pescado has a hack for that, I believe. It's called localwalkbys, though I don't know if that's technically what you're talking about.

I have that. Does localwalkbys restrict Uni profs to the Uni subhood? I don't remember. If it does, then that would probably be the simpler answer, since I assume it does so by default.  With twojeffs controller, you probably have to ban the profs individually?

Ste

[Flamingo]

Well, yes, that's what it should do. It should restrict YAs to the University subhood, Downtownies and anyone that lives downtown in the NL subhood, and does the same for Bluewater.

[Sagana]

I haven't been able to find any way to get less profs or do anything with them at all Totally clean neighborhood, all of JMs 'don't give me extra' hacks etc. and I'm still stuck with the EA profs (I almost wish they'd just redo the Uni EP, it's so bad. I'd like to have a good one.) The problem with local walkbys is that it'll do all the Uni folk, not just the profs - including your young adults and your created dormies (if you make your own). There might be an option for not allowing Uni NPCs on Two Jeffs visitor controller?

[Magicmoon]

I used the tutorial here to do the clean neighborhood the right way with the empty templates. When I put a student into a dorm I got a lag while all those profs were created, and I do use no redundancy.

To keep the professors off the property, I use TwoJeffs controller. Just click the active Sim and choose ban professors, as well as mascots, cheerleaders, and streakers. I didn't see any of his paintings to control these characters, so you have to set the ban on each Uni lot that you play. Using a no townie painting has kept the profs off of the Uni comm lots for me.

I am currently playing Uni and no one other than my playables ever walk onto my lots.

[rohina]

What I want to know is, what is the source of this anti-professor prejudice?

[syberspunk]

What I want to know is, what is the source of this anti-professor prejudice?

* syberspunk shrugs.

Perhaps it may be considered "a waste" to interact with these sims? Since you're not supposed to move them in or marry them?  I dunno.  I don't mind them, because socializing with them boosts grades.

Maybe people hate teh "lecher" prof i.e. that Drama prof who stalks your sims all the time, even if you haven't met him yet.  It seems that he will walk by and ring your dorm doorbell, even if you haven't met him or any other professors yet.  He (or she, depending on your game) is a creepy lecherous sim (yes, even the code has a check for Sim - Is Lecherous? BHAV or something like that), and apparently they are meant to stalk you, where ever you go.

I believe they are the profs that Pescado mentioned before, who like immediately get a crush or fall in love with you as soon as you meet them.  I do my best to avoid those at all costs.  If I see a walk by Prof ringin my doorbell, I just totally ignore him/her.  Creepy!  Those Maxians have an odd sense of humour.


Ste

[ElfPuddle]

What I want to know is, what is the source of this anti-professor prejudice?

Bad grades?

[Hegelian]

What I want to know is, what is the source of this anti-professor prejudice?

For those of us who are Americans, it's in our genes. Anti-intellectualism has been bred into us for generations (how many generations is 200 years??)—it's one of the fundamental elements of our national character.   

[SaraMK]

I wonder if you could give them a prisoner token to stop them from showing up on community lots. It works for the aliens I keep on The Mothership lot in my neighborhoods, but they aren't NPCs.

You could get it from simlogical.com and see if it works on professors. You need to have the inventory feature... whichever EP that came with.

[slurpeefiend]

What I want to know is, what is the source of this anti-professor prejudice?

Oh, my prejudice isn't restricted to just the professors... it's for all game-produced characters.  I've hated all game produced and default characters since I started playing the original Sims five years ago, and Sims 2 just made them that much more obnoxious and hard to get away from.  They do nothing but get in the way and complicate the game for me.  Since I know that the game requires a certain number of NPCs to run properly, I use antiredundancy to keep their numbers down to a bare minimum and simply ignore them as much as possible.  The problem I have here is that I don't know why the game has to produce a full two dozen of them.  I'd prefer just one, and I'm even willing to go along with up to four, but twenty-four of them means that my game will have more professors than all other townies, downtownies, NPCs, and strays combined.  Obnoxious.

[Sagana]

Oh, my prejudice isn't restricted to just the professors... it's for all game-produced characters.

Me too, exactly that, ditto.

My prejudice is for all EA/Maxian created characters and I've worked hard at having very limited numbers of them (to the point of never calling a taxi in some hoods so I don't end up with a driver NPC). It's annoying that it works pretty well for everything but Uni. What I really want is to make my own professors. And I don't feel a need for that many. I've only got 6 kids at uni - 3 playables, 3 (my own) dormies... the profs waaayyy outnumber the student body. There's gonna be a revolution soon.

[vcline]

It works for the aliens I keep on The Mothership lot in my neighborhoods, but they aren't NPCs.

Ooo!  Mothership lot!  Where do you get this?  I love alien stuff.

[SaraMK]

Ooo!  Mothership lot!  Where do you get this?  I love alien stuff.

It's just a lot with a buyable alien ship on it.

It houses twelve aliens that I use to pollinate anyone who gets abducted, so that they're not all related to one alien.

[nocomment]

If you are willing to experiment, try this.

Change all the professors to infants with SimPe.  Disclaimer:  I've never done this, I've only read about it.

It seems that changing an NPC to an infant prevents them from visiting other lots.  If you try this, I would suggest trying to call them on the phone, to see if it can be done.  After all, phone calls to professors can help grades.

You also may be able to chat with them online.

Of course, I understand if you don't want to experiment with this.  Just thought I'd pass the idea along.

[slurpeefiend]

If you are willing to experiment, try this.

Change all the professors to infants with SimPe.  Disclaimer:  I've never done this, I've only read about it.

It seems that changing an NPC to an infant prevents them from visiting other lots.  If you try this, I would suggest trying to call them on the phone, to see if it can be done.  After all, phone calls to professors can help grades.

You also may be able to chat with them online.

Of course, I understand if you don't want to experiment with this.  Just thought I'd pass the idea along.

If that works it would solve-ish my problem.  I'm mostly interested in the game not having to load a bunch of useless character files in the first place, and all the great not-having-to-deal-with-them which would come with that.

[Magicmoon]

Maybe people hate teh "lecher" prof i.e. that Drama prof who stalks your sims all the time, even if you haven't met him yet.  It seems that he will walk by and ring your dorm doorbell, even if you haven't met him or any other professors yet.  He (or she, depending on your game) is a creepy lecherous sim (yes, even the code has a check for Sim - Is Lecherous? BHAV or something like that), and apparently they are meant to stalk you, where ever you go.

I believe they are the profs that Pescado mentioned before, who like immediately get a crush or fall in love with you as soon as you meet them.  I do my best to avoid those at all costs.  If I see a walk by Prof ringin my doorbell, I just totally ignore him/her.  Creepy!  Those Maxians have an odd sense of humour.

Ste

Since you brought this up, I have Dramafix in my game to stop this strange character. When I started my Uni lot I forgot to set TJ's visitor controls to disallow profs, but I hadn't met any yet since I use Squinge's "No meet profs". Then somewhere around 3am this prof shows up and rings the doorbell. I quickly set the visitor controller and he disappeared. But the next night he shows up in the middle of the night again.

How do I know that this was the Drama prof or not? If it was the Drama Prof, I want to report it in the right thread.

[seelindarun]

Since you brought this up, I have Dramafix in my game to stop this strange character. When I started my Uni lot I forgot to set TJ's visitor controls to disallow profs, but I hadn't met any yet since I use Squinge's "No meet profs". Then somewhere around 3am this prof shows up and rings the doorbell. I quickly set the visitor controller and he disappeared. But the next night he shows up in the middle of the night again.

How do I know that this was the Drama prof or not? If it was the Drama Prof, I want to report it in the right thread.

I don't think Pescado's dramafix stops those profs, because I have it (it's marked critical) but it doesn't change their behaviour in any way.  Lemme check...

Yup.  Dramafix fixes "lost best friend" memories and "met self" memories.  No claims to fix their stalking behaviour.

Could you possibly have a different drama prof hack?

[syberspunk]

As seelindarun says, I don't think the dramafix alters the drama prof behaviour. It fixes buggy things about them, but doesn't stop them from stalking you.

How do I know that this was the Drama prof or not? If it was the Drama Prof, I want to report it in the right thread.

If you have InSim, or any of the other hacks (Merola's mind controller or Dolphins thingamajig), you could make the prof selectable.  Couldn't you check to see that way?  I sort of just assumed that the stalker prof was the drama prof.  I vaguely recall looking at the code once, and seeing what it was that identified a sim as "Lecherous" and I think I eventually traced it back to being a drama prof.  I forget tho, the details, of how one is classified as a drama prof.

If I find time, I could probably figure it out by looking at the code.  But wouldn't you also be able to check by enrolling a YA in that major, sending them to class, and seeing what prof's s/he meets?

Ste

[JadeEliott]

What would happen if you just deleted them? Then like with other NPCs, the game would only make one when it was needed...like when you delete all maids in making a new hood, the game only makes a maid when you need one. So unless you try to call a professor in your major, it would not make one, right? *wonders*